Flock & Food Truck Park in Alton is open for summer service

A new haven for cuisine on wheels has arrived in downtown Alton. Flock & Food Truck Park opened at 210 Ridge Street on Thursday, May 12, according to co-owner Laura Windisch. Windisch and her husband Matt Windisch also co-own Stacked Burger Bar in St. Louis’ Carondelet neighborhood.

On its first day of service, the outdoor space hosted T&S Smokehouse, Pig on a Wing, Homestyle Grill and Taqueria Los Reyes. Additional trucks, including The Sweet Side and Lulu’s Nice Ice, are slated throughout the summer.

“The Bar at Flock is the primary business,” Windisch explained. “Trucks will periodically be in and out all summer. We’ll have a lunch shift and a dinner shift. ... If there’s a day that we don’t have any food trucks, we are encouraging people to stop off at one of their favorite local eateries around town – there’s a lot to choose [from].”

Windisch described the bar’s cocktail offerings as summery classics with a twist. These include the “Orange is the New Old Fashioned,” featuring an orange syrup and bourbon and spice infused cherries, a 1220 Spirits gin cocktail with handcrafted peach-basil jam, and a seasonal kiwi mojito. All syrups are made in-house, and Windisch recommends adding your favorite fruit flavors to the specialty shaken lemonades also on the menu.

The 2,000-square-foot Bar at Flock seats 100 guests indoors in a repurposed shed with overhead fans and wall-to-wall, open garage doors that blur the divide between indoors and outside. “We’ll have live music, we’ve got games outside,” Windisch said. “There’s a concrete pad with chalk that the kids are just loving right now. We have cornhole and a giant Connect Four, and we’ll be adding some more fun yard games.” The surrounding area has “lots of places to set up your lawn chairs.” Windisch stressed that the park is family- and pet-friendly.

Windisch said that Jayne Simmons, who co-founded redevelopment enterprise AltonWorks with her husband John, devised the idea behind Flock. “[The Simmons] are working to make [Alton] a thriving, bustling town with a lot of things to do,” Windisch said. The Simmons approached the Windisches, who have lived in Alton for the past four years, about operating a food truck park about two years ago.

Laura and Matt agreed to collaborate with AltonWorks on “something the community could really need: a fun gathering place,” she said. There are plans to further expand the green space around Flock, as well as partnerships with community organizations like the Alton Farmers’ & Artisans’ Market on upcoming menu items. “We are in it now,” Windisch laughed. “We’re in it on the ground floor, if you will, of this revitalization movement that’s happening here.”

Flock will be open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information on scheduled food trucks, visit them on Facebook and Instagram.